BEFORE THE BELL: Investor optimism reigns again on US-China trade relations; US Fed Reserve January minutes to be released

Investors are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on trade talks again and that’s helping markets reach higher. Donald Trump is also helping markets after he backtracked on his original hard end to US China trade negotiations of March 1st, now saying there’s no magic date. This is expected to lift North American markets higher at the open as the threat of more US tariffs on Chinese trade has somewhat been lifted.

Meanwhile, investors will get some more details to chew on as the minutes from the US Fed’s January meeting are expected to be released today. The notes will give a better idea of how policymakers are feeling about the economic tone of 2019.

And despite cuts by OPEC, the US is once again ramping up crude production which is tanking the price of oil. US crude is down to 56.28 a barrel.